Charisma Media - March 2011 - Inform - Jacob's Hope - 11

NEWS OF THE CHURCH
AROUND THE WORLD
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HOPE FOR THE WORLD
Assemblies of God launches global outreach to Jews
Jeff Friedman grew up in a Jewish
family, attended an Orthodox Jewish synagogue every week and lived in the city with
the largest Jewish population:
Brooklyn, N.Y. The brief encounters he
had with Christians left him with a negative impression of the faith during his first
26 years of life.
offended me; they turned
me Friedman says. basically hated
One day in 1980, after he moved to
Miami for his job as a government pharmacist, Friedman went to get a haircut.
Mitzi, the hairstylist at the salon, was
Jewish and attended an Assemblies of
God (AG) church.
challenged me as a Jew to study
the Jewish Scriptures as they pertain to
the Friedman recalls.
spoke to me in a way that made
A week later, Friedman came to faith in
(the Hebrew name for Jesus). He
immediately sensed a calling, realizing
that the majority of Jews never hear the
gospel presented in a culturally relevant
CHARISMA Month 2010
way. have a desire to see fellow Jews
come to know this blessing I says
the enthusiastic and energetic Friedman.
He became a licensed AG minister,
graduated from the AG seminary and was
an AG U.S. missionary for 17 years, while
also serving as rabbi of Beth Emanuel,
a Messianic synagogue in Philadelphia.
During a ministry trip in eastern Europe,
Friedman saw Jewish people living in
physical and spiritual poverty and was
motivated to broaden his vision.
After visiting with L. John Bueno,
AG World Missions executive director,
Friedman discovered that no global outreaches to Jews existed in the AG. He
devised the concept of Hope
(jacobshope.com), as the first AG World
Missions effort to engage the worldwide
Jewish community.
latent in [the AG] that people want
to do something for the Jewish
Bueno says. is our only ministry to
reach Jews throughout the
lot of people are supporting Jewish
ministries that are not run by
a i a a co